The research is in. The best emailers do the stuff everyone knows they should be doing -- personalisation, cart abandonment and welcomes -- while the worst don't. It really is that simple.

Only one in three customers is not worried about sharing personal information, and so Forrester researchers are rightly urging email marketers to see GDPR as an opportunity to deepen trust and loyalty.

Investing in email gives a massive return of thirty-eight pounds for every pound pumped in, compared to seven for direct mail. Which would you rather achieve?

Email is already a highly favoured marketing channel. Throw online and mobile payments, direct through email, into the equation and you have an e-commerce and m-commerce revolution in the wings.

The huge strides being made in email automation and personalisation make it even more odd that the channel still suffers from underinvestment -- 15% of marketing budget versus 22% of sales.

Email's not just about nurturing existing contacts. Now is the perfect time to use third party data to swell your lists before the massive GDPR fines being in May 2018.

In smart hands, email has to be the best-placed channel to act on data and give consumers personalised offers that lead to -- at the very least -- appropriate landing pages.

Researchers have shown that too many sales offers are not necessarily a good thing. The best engagement comes when brands are seen to be helpful and informative, not just flogging more stuff.

The GDPR issues rightly raised by the DMA show the power of organisations putting in the hard yards to be compliant and build their own lists ahead of May 2018's deadline.

Far too many email campaigns fall flat because they forget one very simple part of any sales message -- how to put together a call to action that will be acted on.